Sun-Ton Farms

When the call came I was not so sure what to expect.  I accepted the invite from DMI to the 2017 SXSW event and now its time to get started.  The ride from the airport was an adventure.  Did everyone know  there is no UBER in Austin??  After some quick thinking, I caught a cab ride with 3 other attendees.  Did I mention en route to the Convention Center one of my cab mates commented she hates dairy?? Talk about awkward!!!!  The other cab mate works in marketing for USC Athletics.  She mentioned she is here at SXSW to attend crisis training for social media.  We had a few laughs talking about the USC Football program and its challenges.  I will admit she has a pretty cool job.

The dairy hating cab mate asked if any of us had any extra tickets or a floor she could crash on??  Again…..AWKWARD!!  All I can say is there are people everywhere, it’s raining, and I am super excited to get started.  Today I have a few seminars I plan to check out this afternoon.  I have my Starbucks in hand and now it’s time to get going.  Just need to find my map and figure our which way is North…….

It’s Official ~ I have a badge and a swag bag.  

My 12 year old announced this to me a few days ago.  It was in passing, probably after he had read a space story or finished creating another flying object with his legos.  I smiled.  You see… my 12 year old is diagnosed autistic so I was actually fairly surprised he thought about his future and what he might want to be “when he grows up”.  But there is whole other thought that comes to me after he announces his career goals.

We own and operate a dairy farm.  My husband is following in the footsteps as his father.  His father did the same thing (he had a few detours).  We have 3 children, so isn’t it assumed that one of our kids will take over the farm when we are done?  We talk about it sometimes over dinner or during a trip that for sure involves a cow.  Our oldest son and daughter have expressed interest in coming home and assuming the day to day dairy operations (only after college and working for someone else).

I always worry about what my youngest son would do.  Typically I worry more about him completing his homework, making his AR Goal in Language Arts, or not eating anything with gluten.  But the thought of him not being here every day is something that never entered my mind.  I figured the way he loves to “tinker” and build unique things, he would come home and build a self-designed robotic milker or implement some cool flush system not yet created.  But a career with NASA?

I guess I will appreciate the gift he gave me that day.  The gift that he does have goals, he has dreams, and he does have a future.  What a blessing my little Joey has given me.

Dreaming of rockets and trip to Mars.

Of course I meant to write this right at the turn of the new year.  When you live on a farm, many things get in the way of the “to do” list.  I had the goal to put down in print a few goals I have for 2017 but horrible below freezing temperatures, snow, and a round of the flu managed to completely derail my plan.

Now that the ice and snow have thawed and the house has been disinfected top to bottom I can get back to my thoughts and wishes for 2017.

1 ~ Appreciate and treasure the time I have with my family.  For too long I could not wait for my kids to be out of diapers, sleeping through the night, attending school all day……  The list goes on and it was all so I could have a few more minutes for me.  Well now as I look at the calendar, I realize I have very little time left with my kids before they head off to the next chapter in their life.  How did it go so fast?  Just yesterday I had a preschooler, infant, and a third on the way.  It just went by so fast and now all I want to do is slow it down.

2.  Appreciate and enjoy the life I have everyday.  I know this sounds easy and simple.  All it takes is a review of the newspaper or quick 30 minute newscast to showcase that there is so much sadness and suffering not so far from home.  I am so blessed to live on a beautiful farm and count cows and calves as my neighbors.  I have the pleasure of walking to work twice a day and I never have to worry about traffic.  It really is an ideal situation and I must remember to love and appreciate it every day.

3.  Encourage my kids to take chances.  I love routine.  I thrive on routine.  Maybe that is why dairy farming is the best job for me.  I want my kids to take chances.  I want them to be ok if something does not go like they want.  I never thought I would be married to a dairy farmer and living in rural Washington.  I took a chance and I never looked back.

Here’s to a great 2017.

This past week, our family experienced one of those days I never want to repeat.  We run an organic dairy  – this means we feed cows, feed calves, milk cows…… the typical dairy farm activities.  But, we also lead a “normal” life too.  We have end of the year school activities (FFA Banquet, Art Fair, Science Fair), sports signups (New Select Soccer Team), ADAPT kid class (think after school PE), and it goes on and on…….  But we also have all regular things every family deals with every day.  A washer that decides to quit.  A toilet that will not quit running.  A hot water tank that decides today is the day it will quit (right before mom takes a shower).

This past week we had one of those awful things every family hates to experience……. the passing of a family pet.  We had an amazing little puppy “Arlo”.  We had the pleasure of loving and caring for him for the past 5 months.  Something very unexpected happened.  Needless to say, many tears were shed but the farm must go on.  As we dealt with deep emotional pain, we also had to run the dairy.

With these events, we also have the luxury of healing.  Yesterday, my husband, daughter, and son made the drive to Eastern Washington and found an amazing little yorkie.  My oldest stayed home and completed his “to do” list.  Many of his “to do” items were those things my husband would have done on any given Saturday.  We were lucky to spend the day as a family and bring home a new addition to our home.

Meet AJ – or “Junior” for short.  We look forward to many days with this newest member of our family.

I’ll be honest.  I have 3 amazing kids – one of the most common life lessons I have tried to teach my kids is “I do not care if life is not fair”.  Please do not come to me with the “It’s not Fair” excuse.  With that said, I must confess I had one of those “Life is not Fair” moments today.  Many a dairy farmer has watched a favorite cow give birth to a bull calf.  Normally this is just part of a normal day, the 50% chance of getting either a heifer or a bull.  For some reason a show cow takes on a different perspective.  Once she has been confirmed pregnant, you spend lots of time wondering and hoping if she will bless  the farm with a wonderful female offspring.  You try not to get your hopes up too much- but I will admit it is hard to not plan and think about all the great things that can happen when your daughter’s favorite brown swiss has a daughter.

Meet “Stephen Curry”. A cute adorable Brown Swiss bull calf.

Let me introduce “Stephen Curry”.  He is an adorable little 100% Brown Swiss bull calf.  While he may cute as he can be, he can not permanently stay at our dairy farm.  Luckily we have some good friends who live nearby who adore and appreciate the brown swiss breed as much as we do.  “Stephen Curry” will move to their farm as soon as he is old enough (probably 4 months from now).  So in the mean time, every time I feed Stephen Curry I will quietly remind myself that “Life is not Fair”.  At least in this case.

I had the best time Sunday attending the 2016 Seattle Ice Cream Festival.   The Dairy Farmers of Washington made a $500 contribution to sponsor this event.   It was so amazing to see so many people interested in ICE CREAM.  The Pacific Northwest is so lucky to have so many small artisan ice cream creators.  I knew this event was going to be popular, but I was not ready for the wall to wall people. I t was like Disneyland at Christmas!!  All I can say is as a dairy farmer, it was amazing to see so many people interested in ice cream.  I hope this event happens again because this dairy farmer will definitely make time to attend.

This is Martha Marino and she is an amazing advocate for dairy!  We are so blessed to have her representing the dairy farmers of Washington.